Light-sensitive materials including a photoconductive layer for use in the preparation of printing plates have heretofore been known. These light-sensitive materials typically comprise a photoconductive layer, a photoresist layer, a metal plate layer, and a support.
The conventional method of producing printing plates using such light-sensitive materials requires complicated steps, e.g., (1) the photoconductive layer is uniformly charged and exposed imagewise to light by the use of light rays to which the photoresist layer is not sensitive, to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive layer; (2) the latent image is developed with toners; (3) with or without fixation of the toner image, light exposure is applied under conditions different from those of the light exposure in (1) above to harden exposed areas of the photoresist layer; (4) the toner image and the photoconductive layer are removed, and unhardened photoresist areas are removed with a solvent; (5) the metal plate layer is etched; and (6) the photoresist layer remaining on the metal plate layer is removed.
In addition, such a method has disadvantages such that (a) a great deal of skill is required in the production of high quality printing plates, (b) since the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductive layer is developed by a dry process, definition is limited, and (c) due to the removal of the photoresist layer and the etching of the metal plate layer, the finally obtained print image is still unsatisfactory in sharpness.